Over the past twenty years there has been a substantial increase in the quantity of programming available to television viewers. In a typical American household, it is not uncommon for viewers to have available fifty or more television stations, and in some cases viewers have more than one hundred channels to choose from. Typically, the high number of channels often makes it difficult for viewers to efficiently locate any single program. Furthermore, due to the ever increasing number of channels and programs at the fingertips of the television viewer, viewers often have difficulty in deciding what station or program to watch. For instance, although a viewer may locate an interesting program, the viewer may still spend a considerable amount of time navigating the remaining channels to confirm that there isn't a more desirable program selection.
The high quantity of programming typically results in channel surfing, which viewers use as a method to quickly ascertain what is being shown on each channel. There are a number of aids to help television viewers with program selection. For instance, with the advent of digital broadcast systems, such as satellite systems and digital cable set-top systems, subscribers are typically offered interactive menus that allow-provide subscribers information regarding programming which is currently being aired and programming which is to be aired in the near future. Using these systems, subscribers can access a program guide that allows subscribers to interactively scroll through available programming, usually based on times and channels. Furthermore, subscribers can view details regarding programs scheduled to be aired at a specific time on a specific channel in the near future, such as the length of the program, a program summary, the program players or hosts, the program's rating, as well as other additional data.
Unfortunately, whether channel surfing or viewing program information from a program guide, subscribers of current digital systems experience delay when scrolling through channels or seeking program information. It may, for instance, take a subscriber 30 seconds to scroll through 30 channels. This result stems from the fact that normal MPEG encoded digital video channels suffer from long initial decoding time, which can typically result in a subscriber waiting a second or more before a channel is displayed. This delay is associated with MPEG data buffering prior to decoding and displaying the MPEG video images. This delay is particularly frustrating given the high number of channels available to subscribers.
What is needed is a system, method and tuner that minimizes this delay so as to allow subscribers to select a channel or program guide information and immediately view that channel or program information with minimal delay.